1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a supporting structure of a pedal device for a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, various structures have been devised as countermeasures at the time an external force of a predetermined value or greater is applied from the front of a vehicle. As examples of this type of countermeasures, it is possible to cite the structures disclosed in DE 3904616 in which a pedal bracket is deformed in a downward direction of a vehicle and Japanese Patent Utility Model Application Laid-Open (JP-U) No. 1-73464. Hereafter, a brief description will be given of the structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Utility Model Application Laid-Open (JP-U) No. 1-73464.
As illustrated in FIG. 8, in the structure disclosed in this publication, a steering column 402 which covers a steering shaft 400 is supported at a vehicle body by a tilt bracket 408, which is formed from an upper plate member 404 and a pair of side plate members 406, and by a shaft 410, which passes through the side plate members 406 and supports the bottom end of the steering column 402.
A knee protector 412, which is shaped as a substantially circular arc-shaped surface and is elastically deformable, is disposed at the lower side of the tilt bracket 408. The knee protector 412 is elastically supported at the lower side of the steering column 402 via elastically deformable stays 414.
In accordance with the above structure, when an external force of a predetermined value or greater is applied from the front of the vehicle, the vehicle occupant starts to inertially move toward the front of the vehicle, and accordingly, the knees of the vehicle occupant start to inertially move in the same direction while the knees of the vehicle occupant are bent as the starting point of bending. Therefore, if the knee protector 412 were not provided, the driver's knees might contact the tilt bracket 408. However, if the knee protector 412 is disposed beneath the tilt bracket 408 as described above, the driver's knees only contact the knee protector 412.
This structure in which the knee protector 412 is provided is useful as a countermeasure at the time that an external force of a predetermined value or greater is applied from the front of the vehicle. However, countermeasures for protecting the legs of the vehicle occupant can also be studied from other points of view. Further, to provide such countermeasures in the relationship with the legs of the vehicle occupant in a multifaceted manner is important from the standpoint of multiple protection.
The present inventors conceived of the idea of the present invention from this standpoint, conducted various experiments and arrived upon extremely effective countermeasures which control the displacement of a pedal device for a vehicle such as a brake pedal at the time that an external force of a predetermined value or greater is applied from the front of the vehicle, by focusing on the deformation and the displacement behavior of the body panel and the like at the time such an external force is applied.